Ernest Partridge: And Now What?

And Now What?

In July, 2005 I wrote that “The GOP is Certain to Win in 2006,
Unless...” “Unless,” that is, some extraordinary
event intervenes; such as economic collapse, exposure of the
election frauds of 2000, 2002 and 2004 complete with
indictments and convictions, criminal convictions of several
top White House officials (perhaps regarding
“Plamegate”), or covert undermining of the Bush
Administration by the CIA and other secret agencies.

And a week before the election, I
suggested that the National GOP was faced with a portentous
dilemma: on the one hand, “fix” one more election to
“salvage” the Congress for the Republicans, and on the
other hand, tell the Diebold, etc., software geniuses to
cool it this time and let the voters have their say. Because
the GOP could not allow the scrupulous and aggressive
Congressional oversight that would follow a Democratic
victory, I predicted that the Repubs would have another go
at an election finagle.

So much for my bonafides as a
prophet.

What I failed to anticipate was the breadth,
depth and intensity of the public disgust with Bush and
Bushism.

Recently, a visitor to The Crisis Papers wrote:
“What are you going to say when the Dems win both
houses?” I replied: “I will say that I have never been
so pleased to have been proven
wrong.”

Exactly!

*********

The
Un-Stolen Election. A day or two after the election, Al
Franken said that this election proves that there is no such
thing as e-vote fraud; not now, and not in prior
elections.

Nonsense! It “proves” no such thing. It
proves, at best, that there was no massive e-vote fraud this
time. However, the evidence for fraud in 2000, 2002 and 2004
remains today as it was prior to this election, and that
evidence is overwhelming. See for yourself. The statistical
evidence alone puts the probability of “chance”
deviation of several separate elections (all to advantage of
Bush and/or the GOP) as one in several million. And there is
much more evidence, though this is not the place to go over
all that again.

So why, if the Rove gang could have fixed
this election, didn’t they do it? Because this time it was
just too risky. One can pull a scam only a few times before
the “marks” (i.e. the public) get suspicious, then
angry. That’s why confidence men move on from town to
town. Perhaps Rove, et all, were beginning to smell the tar
and see some feathers floating by.

For this time, despite
the blackout of election fraud coverage in the mainstream
media, the public was getting suspicious. Gallup reports
that only one fourth of the public is "very confident" that their vote will be
counted. Moreover this is an angry public, demanding
change. Thus the polling gap between “generic”
Democratic and Republican candidates has moved back and
forth around an unprecedented twenty percentage point
advantage for the Democrats. Another “miracle election,”
overcoming that enormous Democratic polling advantage, might
drop that 25% confidence level into the low teens. This
would mean a government and a party essentially without
legitimacy and consent of the governed.

And don’t be too
sure that some electoral hanky-panky was not attempted. Exit
polls in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ohio, New Jersey and
Missouri were all within one point of the actual totals,
once again proving the accuracy of exit polling. But get this: in Virginia and Montana,
the exit polls were significantly off: Virginia, Webb 52,
Allen 47; Montana, Tesler 53, Burns 46. Both contests were,
of course, near ties at 49-49.

So here’s my hunch, take
it for what you think it’s worth. The GOP “Fixit
Brigade” was well aware that the Democrats would have to
take six seats and lose none if they were to take over the
Senate. Very long odds at best. Fix two senate elections,
and Democratic control becomes essentially impossible. If
that was their plan, then they “misunderestimated” the
mood of the electorate. The Democratic “tsunami” topped
this levee.

As for the House, a fix of the fifty or so
seats in play was just too much. First of all, it would have
to significantly increase the number of co-conspirators. Not
a good idea – the more conspirators, the more likely a
fatal gaffe or a whistleblower among them. Second, two dozen
or so “wins,” all by the GOP candidates and contrary to
the polls, might prove to be the final straw. Perhaps it
would make a believer even of Paul Begala and Al Franken.
More significantly, perhaps, at last, the media and the
Democratic Party would take notice, investigate, and finally
expose the whole rotten business – first 2006, then back
to 2004, 2002 and 2000.

So, with the possible exception of
at least two key races, the GOP played it straight this
time. One consequence, to the distinct advantage to the GOP,
is a quieting of suspicions of fraud concerning the previous
elections. “The Franken Factor,” we might call it.

If,
in the next couple of years, the public, the media and the
Democrats simply forget about the election fraud issue, and
if the same e-voting mechanisms remain in place, expect a
return to those thrilling days of November, 2000 and
November, 2004.

The election reform movement must be kept
alive.

*********

Why Did the GOP
Open the Gates to the Democrats? Aside from the
considerable risks of one more stolen election, why would
the GOP “allow” the Democrats to take the House
(assuming that the Senate victory was a “fluke”)?

Perhaps because they just didn’t see a Democratic
Congress as all that much of a threat. Remember that, as a
result of the Jeffords defection, the Democrats had control
of the Senate from May, 2001 to January, 2003. They didn’t
exactly set the place on fire.

Perhaps, too, astute
Republicans are fully aware that Bushenomics is leading
straight to an economic crash-landing in the next two years,
and are quite content to have the Democrats in Congress to
blame for it.

*********

Where are
we now? The spin machines are up and running
full-force. This was not, we are told, a victory for
liberals and progressives. After all, most of the new
Congressional Democrats are moderates. But of course they
are! Rahm Emmanuel and the DLC picked candidates to their
liking – Republicrats. But not all of them. Moreover, the
“veterans,” including Speaker Pelosi and the key
Committee Chairs tend toward the left. And they are tough
and determined.

In the days following the election, the
victorious Democrats have been as soft and sweet as
marzipan. “We must all work together for the common
good,” they tell Republicans who haven’t the slightest
understanding of, much less an interest in, a “common
good.” “Let bygones be bygones,” we hear. They forget
that many of those “bygones” are crimes, even acts of
treason.

Are all these to be unrevealed and unpunished,
all in the name of a new “era of good feeling?”

The
public must constantly and forcefully remind the Democrats
in Congress, just who put them there and why.

Meanwhile,
let us never forget that the departing Congress has given
Bush dictatorial powers, through the Patriot Act, the
Military Commissions Act, and the John Warner Defense
Authorization Act which allows the President to order the
Armed Forces to quell civil “disturbances” within the
US. In addition, he has effectively repealed habeas corpus
and at least four of the articles of the Bill of Rights.

The Democratic Congress must act immediately to rescind
these extraordinary powers. The Congress must also make it
clear to the Busheviks that the President can not, at his
whim, choose to disregard Acts of Congress.

If the
Democratic Congress draws these lines in the sand, expect a
very brief “era of good feeling.” Bush, a spoiled,
super-annuated adolescent, is used to getting his own way,
and having his Daddy bail him out when he screws up.
Perhaps, for the first time in his sixty years, all that is
over and the buck really stops at his Oval Office desk. It
is fascinating, and a bit scary, to anticipate just how he
will react.

Finally, the Democrats must hold on tightly to
this victory. They have won this battle, but the war
continues. Like the soldiers in Rumsfeld’s army, the
Democrats, upon “taking ground,” have a nasty habit of
moving on and allowing “the enemy” to retake the
territory. Having won this battle, the Democratic party and
its supporters may choose now to leave the field and return
to their homes and their private lives. Then they will
return to the political arena when the next election
approaches.

“Conservative” Republicans (better,
“regressives”), don’t behave this way. There is no
“off season” for them. Even today, they are writing
damage reports and planning their counter-attacks. They plan
for the long haul.

That’s what happened in 1965, after
the Goldwater debacle. The Democrats went fishing, and the
Republicans got to work.

If the gains of last Tuesday are
to be secured and then expanded, Democratic politics must be
a 24/7, twelve month activity.

*************

Copyright 2006, by Ernest Partridge

Dr. Ernest Partridge
is a consultant, writer and lecturer in the field of
Environmental Ethics and Public Policy. He has taught
Philosophy at the University of California, and in Utah,
Colorado and Wisconsin. He publishes the website, "The
Online Gadfly" ( www.igc.org/gadfly) and co-edits the
progressive website, "The Crisis Papers" (
www.crisispapers.org). His book in progress, "Conscience
of a Progressive," can be seen at
http://www.igc.org/gadfly/progressive/^toc.htm . Send
comments to: crisispapers@hotmail.com .

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